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Firefly Nightlight LED Running Shoes

Introduction: Firefly Nightlight LED Running Shoes

Just in case you run in the pitch black like I do most of the time, I found and old pair of my kid's light-up slippers in the trash (they are the Buzz Lightyear models from any Walmart or Target) and ripped the LED lighting system out of them and hot-glued them to my running shoes--now, with every step at night, they do a crazy light show for the oncoming traffic.

Step 1: Buy the Materials

Buy the slippers at Walmart or Target. Better yet, your kid may be throwing an old pair away! When you have the slippers, gently slice into them with a razor blade and remove the LED lighting system carefully. Be careful not to slice through the wiring. They were hot-glued into place, so, I had to rip them out forcefully. You will need a hot-glue gun or Liquid Nails to reattach them back to your running shoes.

Step 2: Attach the Lighting

Simply hot glue gun the LED lighting octopus (it really looks like an octopus when you get it out of the slipper) onto the tounge of the shoe, running it down and out to the top of the shoe. You can glue them anyway you like. I mounted one of mine on the top of the tounge, and down each side of the shoe. I glued the sensor switch onto the tounge, which seems to work great. When you are done, let them dry for a few hours and then go test them out!

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I really liked this 'ible. I recently picked up my C25K program in the middle of a Texas summer, so I have to go out before light. I do have one question. Is there a way to take the battery out or put a simple (and small) switch in there? There are times when I will wear my shoes for a power walk in the evening with my family and don't want the lights going off. Great job! I have yet another reason to go to my local thrift store to find things to hack.

OH, and to the original poster.. Often you can find the led shoes or slippers at good will or salvation army, and though you really shouldnt put those shoes on your child, (really important point there, i dont know why they sell shoes at the salvation army for kids, but they do... i guess some shoes are better than no shoes though if you really are that broke) you CAN buy them there for this purpose, and viola, you have expensive light up shoes for the price of decent non light up shoes ::grin::

This is a quite bad Instructable. All it tells you is to glue LED's and wire them up to power. It should explain about the circuit board.
"that makes the whole system possible." Well if we don't know about it or where it came from, how are we supposed to make it...

If you read it again, I tell you exactly where to get the LED system--from the slippers which can be purchased at Walmart, Target, etc. Was that step somehow not clear enough? I never tell anyone to build a circuit board, I tell them where to get it and glue it into the shoes. What else do you need to know about the circuit board? I wasn't trying to make this a Nasa-level project. Don't reinvent the wheel--simply get the wheel from somewhere else.

Even so ur right.
If u have to destroy a pair of shoes to get the iteams needed to glue them onto another pair of shoes to make them do the same thing as the first pair of shoes ur just wasting ur time. If it told us how to get the things we needed like resistors leds etc, and then tell us how to build the circuit it would be an great instructable.

um.. He wrote it from the prospective of a parent. If you are a parent you probably have half a dozen of these light up shoes laying around that your kids have outgrown. If you have kids that like light up shoes, or if, like him, you want light up shoes for safety (i have never seen light up adult shoes, and i think this was a great idea, i didnt even know it was possible to get the lights out of the shoes heh) then this is a perfect idea to avoid paying outrageous prices for yet another pair of light up shoes for your fast growing child! Kids shoes, plain = ten bucks. Kids shoes, light up=15-25 dollars.. this way, kids shoes+light up from old shoes= probably 11dollars including hot glue (and thats for enough hot glue to do a hundred pairs of shoes heh)

This is a GREAT idea!! Thanks!My kids out grow their shoes too fast for them to wear them out - and since it is not advisable for their developing feet to be in used shoe we don't pass them down. This means we end up buying more shoes so in the end its best for avoiding many future foot problems.

This idea will save us a lot of money as I can recycle the LEDs from the old shoes and put them in a decent pair of more affordable shoes.